British designer Holly Palmer has sent us photos of her Book Porcupine.

With 18 compartments in various sizes for storing your favourite books, the Book Porcupine is a product that is based on the idea of negative spaces. The compartments are the books negative representations made permanent in the structure of the unit. Designed to sit beside a standard chair, the name of the piece is given in reference to its silhouette – the short, stout legs against the books sticking out at various angles and degrees. Good for flats or smaller homes as an alternative book shelf.

Visit Holly Palmer’s website – here.

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Ireland’s LID Architecture have designed the Landscape Room, a contemporary addition to an existing limestone cottage in rural County Sligo.

Full description after the photos….

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The Leipzig, Germany based design duo of Johannes Heinzmann and Franz Gabel from the design studio YEAYEA have created the Linienlampe.

Description from YEAYEA:

The pendant light ‘Linienlampe’ consists of three light bulbs in tubular form which are joint by a lampholder out of heat resistant silicon. The spare cable is wrapped around the three light bulbs according to the hight of the ceiling. This creates the illusion, that the bulbs are fixed by the cable.

Visit the YEAYEA website – here.

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The Los Angeles, California based designer John Niero has won a Gold award in the Best of NeoCon 2009 competition for his ELLE chair. The Best of NeoCon honors new commercial interiors products being introduced to the market each year. Approximately 60 jurors review almost 400 products competing in 45 categories.

Visit John Niero’s website – here.

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German designer Jannis Ellenberger has created a modular storage, working, and seating system for children. The pieces are made from oak wood, felt, and melamine. There is also a simple clip-lamp that can be added to the tables.

Visit Jannis Ellenberger’s website – here.

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Last July, we reported on the opening of the first citizenM Hotel at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, and we mentioned that they were planning to open another more urban location. Well, they’re now officially a hotel chain with the opening of the citizenM Amsterdam City location.

Located in Amsterdam’s financial district, between the World Trade Centre and city centre, and with rates starting at 69 Euros a night, citizenM continues to target the frequent traveller market. The low rates are made possible by the ultra-compact rooms that are actually built in a factory and then transported to the site and stacked on top of the pre-built ground floor. The 215 room, five floor hotel was designed by the Dutch architectural firm Concrete.

Besides the innovative room design, the ground floor is especially filled with designer touches. As a result of their partnership with Vitra, there is a variety of designer furnishings including the Marshmallow sofa by George Nelson, the new Vegetal chairs by the Bouroullec brothers, child-size Panton chairs, the Porcupine Desk by Hella Jongerius, and cute plywood elephants by Ray and Charles Eames.

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Designer Phillip Grass has sent us photos of his der Schlitten (Toboggan) Chair.

Phillip says:

der Schlitten (Toboggan) combines elements of mid-century aerodynamic design with an opulent vehicle. The materials used: zebrawood, elm burl veneer, plywood, upholstered with neoprene fabric and PU-foam.

Visit the Phillip Grass website – here.

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The Michelberger is a new budget hotel in Berlin, Germany that will open on September 9th, 2009.
The hotel takes its name from the founder, Tom Michelberger, a 31-year-old from southern Germany. Tom is the central figure in a patchwork of friends who came together to create the hotel.

With rates starting at 59 EUR per night, the Michelberger falls into the budget hotel category, but unlike most budget hotels which are typically very standard and conventional, the Michelberger has been designed by the internationally renowned designer Werner Aisslinger, to provide a unique guest experience.

The 119 room hotel is located next to the famous Oberbaum Bridge and the river Spree. Five different room categories offer a range of different layouts. The rooms display a high level of space efficiency and lots of vertical drama and airiness – a feat allowed by the placing of loft bed areas above the bathrooms. Most rooms are for singles, couples and threesomes but other options including The Big One allow groups of 4 or even more to room together.

Visit the Michelberger Hotel website – here.

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The Slovenian OFIS Architects have completed the Farewell Chapel in a village close to Ljubljana.

Full description after the photos….

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Designer Eva Marguerre exhibited her Nido collection at the 2009 DMY Design Festival in Berlin.

The extremely light and surprisingly strong stools are made from fiberglass that has been soaked with dyed resin. Be sure to visit the gallery on her website where you can see Eva Marguerre testing the stools by walking and jumping on them, as well as throwing them in the air and watching them hit the ground.

Visit the Nido website – here.

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The Berlin, Germany based anOtherArchitect group have created the Nefertiti Lounge concept, which they recently exhibited at the FURNEX show in Cairo, Egypt.

Description from the designers:

A low lounge which integrates a table element. It can be used as a laptop workspace, coffee table or relaxation seat. The sleek and feminine lines are inspired by the iconic bust of  Queen NEFERTITI of Egypt.

Visit anOtherArchitect’s website – here.

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The architects at Safdie Rabines have designed the Hilltop House in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

The home was designed to maximize the 360 degree views from its hilltop location, just north of San Diego.  An open plan in the public areas of the home features four cascading levels of reverse butterfly roofs with clerestory windows to illuminate and ventilate. The stacked open beam ceilings delineate warm intimate spaces despite the nearly 10,000 square feet of space.  Cantilever spans are supported by steel beams.

The house is sited and structurally engineered for energy efficiency.  The reverse roof slope drains off rising warm air through clerestories with the help of cool ocean cross breezes.  In winter, southern windows provide an abundance of passive solar heating.  On cloudy days, hydronic radiant floors powered by German made boilers efficiently heat from the bottom up.

The home is currently being offered for sale through the agents at Gallagher & Gallagher – here.

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Japanese designer Sachiko Segawa, a student at Sweden’s Konstfack University, has created a collection of bamboo furniture called Take Kagu as her final degree project.

“Take” is bamboo and “Kagu” is furniture in Japanese. I grew up in the countryside of Japan and my house was located just in front of a bamboo forest. When I walk in the bamboo forest, I have a very special feeling that is intricately related to my childhood background. Nowadays, there are several problems with bamboo forests, but on the other hand, bamboo itself is focused as an ecological and sustainable material.

There is an interesting project involving a bamboo forest that is going on near my hometown in Japan. This project is producing bamboo plywood and furniture made from this material.

Through the combination of my background and this new material, the aim of my degree project has been to create a bamboo forest feeling with furniture made of bamboo plywood. Furniture design can create feelings and emotions of nature and can achieve a connection with a new material technique.

Visit Sachiko Segawa’s website – here.

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Spanish designer Pete Sans has created the AMEBA light for the Barcelona based lighting manufacturer VIBIA.

AMEBA is a new pendant concept adaptable and adjustable to every space thus allowing selecting and creating compositions according to every need and preference. This light fitting is made of 5 different basic shapes that fit perfectly and can be combined among themselves to offer an unlimited range of compositions.

Visit the VIBIA website – here.

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Anders Johnsson and Petter Thörne are a couple of young designers based in Stockholm, who are graduating from Sweden’s Konstfack University this spring. The two designers have created the Mold chairs as part of their final project for the Interior Architecture and Furniture Design program.

While visiting various Swedish furniture manufacturers, they noticed the large quantities of waste materials that are normally just thrown away or burned. The wood veneer waste they saw was of particular interest to them, which they’ve used to create chairs where each piece is unique, as a result of the combination of the different types of wood.

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